According to court records, Knowlton’s new attorney, Bill Richardson of Grand Junction, formally entered his appearance in the case during a two-minute hearing. Prosecutors gave Knowlton’s attorney a box and files of evidence.

Knowlton was indicted Aug. 25 by a federal grand jury on felony counts of selling an archeological resource and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Knowlton, a Fort Collins resident at the time of the suspected crimes, sold a pipe, knife and knife point that were stolen from federal lands in Colorado and Utah, according to court records.

He allegedly mailed the items in July 2008 in a package sent from Colorado to an undercover informant in Utah working for the FBI.

Knowlton ran an Internet-based business called Bob’s Flint Shop. An affidavit says he told an undercover informant that his collection included about 3,700 artifacts with a retail value of a half-million dollars.

Knowlton’s home in Grand Junction was raided by federal authorities in June, five days after he bought the property and moved in. He is one of 26 people — two have committed suicide — who have been charged after a two-year investigation of the thefts of relics from federal lands across the Southwest.